


The Best Sharpshooter

by TriggeringAngel



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Betrayal, M/M, Minor Original Character(s), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sick Character, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-02
Updated: 2017-08-02
Packaged: 2018-12-10 03:41:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11683281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TriggeringAngel/pseuds/TriggeringAngel
Summary: After being injected with a strange fluid Lance starts acting a bit weird, it isn't until almost two weeks pass that he snaps and attacks his team. The team soon figures out that there's more to the story than they originally thought.Or Lance gets injected with a chip and the Galra turns him into Lotor's best assassin and Shiro doesn't know how to feel anymore.





	The Best Sharpshooter

Lance sighed, looking around the purple tinted hallway for what felt like the hundredth time. He was on a stealth mission to see if they could hack and find any information regarding Pidge's family; the ship had its fair share of prisoners so they suspected that maybe they could find out if they had her father and brother, or at least had any leads to where they were now.

So far Pidge hadn't found anything, at least he didn't think she did; he figured that she would let them know if she found anything. As time passed Lance felt eyes on him, furrowing his brows when he didn't see anything around him. He ignored the feeling when he heard Pidge speak up, glancing towards the room he was guarding only to hear her say something about the system, talking about how it was interesting; it wasn't that hard to hack into it, most galra tech, if not all, would give her a hard time to hack into it but not that system.

He tuned her out after a bit, seeing as it wasn't any information that they needed. Lance looked around once again when he felt eyes on him, letting out a small breath, getting a bit annoyed but more so nervous; he didn't know what was there- there was definitely something there, he could tell but he didn't know 'what' exactly was there.

When Lance turned his head to the left to inspect it more he saw movement in the corner of his right eye, he snapped his head over, eyes darting all around the dimly lit hallway, there was nothing there; no drone, druid, or even a soldier. It was completely quiet and empty and that wasn't always a good thing unless he had someone there to fill the silence; sometimes he couldn't help but let his mind wander to the darker side.

That maybe it would be better if they had someone else pilot the blue lion, that he wasn't useful in any way, that he should just disappear; he hated these thoughts because he knew deep down that they were true to some extent. He, of course, didn't want to bother the others with his thoughts as they went away after awhile but they still clouded his mind every now and then.

There were voices too and he just wanted them to be muted, even if it was for a little while; just so he didn't have to constantly cover the silence with his witty comments when the voices got too loud. He missed his home on earth when he didn't have to say anything out loud because he knew his family would drive those thoughts- those voices away; even if it was just to let him get an actual nights rest.

Deep down he knew his team, his space family would be able to quiet those voices as well, they only needed to know when it became too much for the Cuban to take. Lance sighed and shook his head, trying to shake the thoughts away as he blinked a few times; he couldn't think about that now. He sighed, thinking that maybe he was being paranoid, they were in a galra ship after all.

"I think I got something!" He jumped a bit when he heard Pidge speak up again; he didn't even hear her stop conversing about the galra tech. He turned his body to the door but as soon as he turned away from the right corridor he felt a stinging pain stab him in the back of his neck, he instantly felt sick as he reached his right hand up to touch the area.

The world was turning and his head felt like lead, he could also feel a pounding sensation, most likely a migraine which only made things worse; his migraines only made him more nauseous. He closed his eyes, taking deep breaths but nothing was soothing how he felt. He placed his unoccupied hand on the wall to stable himself, to try and keep him grounded but it wasn't working; it was as if he got hit with a sudden wave of exhaustion.

He knew he shouldn't be letting himself get this vulnerable, especially considering the fact that he didn't have to only worry about himself but Pidge as well. He let out a small groan, wincing as he heard the pounding of footsteps coming from the right hallway; every single noise was so much louder in his head.

"Pidge, we need to go now!" He barked out before he took a deep breath, doing his best to ignore the pain, for now, he had to keep Pidge safe. He took a step forward, trying to keep himself up swallowing hard as his mouth suddenly became very dry, it even hurt to swallow. He opened his eyes despite his brain telling him not to, he needed his eyes right now, he could worry about this when they were safe in the Castle.

Once he saw Pidge slip out of the room with her tech in hand he quickly grabbed her by the forearm and began to make a run for it. Wincing when he heard her let out a shout in surprise but followed Lance nonetheless, it wasn't as if she had a choice as Lance had a hard hold on her arm. With every step he took, it felt as if his body was walking in sludge, feet trudging and dragging behind him as he breathed heavily and soon enough he was wheezing; he felt as if his lungs were on fire, on the verge of exploding.

He felt himself trip a few times as he ran, legs close to giving out and he gritted his teeth, he couldn't risk anything happening to Pidge; that's what made him move faster, ignoring the aches in his body as well as the pounding of pain in his head. He didn't care what happened to him, he could be captured for all he cared, just as long as they didn't lay a hand of Pidge; not her, not his space family.

As he made his way to where the Green Lion was he could feel himself getting closer to giving out, slowly losing strength in his hold on her forearm. He could hear Pidge's voice but he couldn't hear the words, it was as if they went in one ear and out the other.

Lance took a sharp turn at one of the hallways and when he saw the Green Lion with her barrier up in the distance he felt relief flood him. As he made his way to the lion he stumbled, almost falling to the ground, his hold on Pidge almost bringing her with him as well but he regained his footing quickly; the world turning and blurring the closer he got to the Pidge's respective lion.

When they got to a safe distance, the Green Lion dropped her barrier, which he was thankful for as the bright color of green was bothersome for his sensitive eyes; lowering her head and opening her mouth dropping the ramp to let them in quickly. Lance stumbled once on his way to Green's cockpit, letting go of Pidge's forearm so she could be seated and pilot them out of there.

He gripped the headrest of the chair, the world still turning and the relatively bright lights made the pulsing in his head more prominent; he ultimately decided to close his eyes but it wasn't any better as he could feel his body gradually reclining to his left side. Catching his footing and staying upright as his grip tightened, he reached a hand up rubbing the back of his neck as he took a sharp intake of breath; it was even more painful now, he'd get it checked out later, or maybe not.

It was probably nothing, even if something in his gut was telling him the opposite. He wavered a bit, he hadn't noticed that Pidge was trying to speak to him. His eyes fluttering open slowly as to try and get used to the light but it didn't work so he opted to just squint at Pidge which somewhat worked.

"Sorry, could you repeat that Pidge?" Lance requested and he winced a bit; he thought he would sound fine but he was wrong as his voice was a bit hoarse due to his dry mouth. He could see her pull a face, one that looked rather concerned and he didn't have an idea why even if his voice sounded a bit different.

"I asked if you were alright- and don't try to lie your way out of this or I'll get Hunk to use the mother tone and I know how much you hate it when he lectures you with his 'mom' voice more than Shiro or Allura lecturing you." He frowned a bit, she knew just what to say to get to him, it really did seem like he couldn't lie; he didn't want to risk even the slightest bit of chance if it would lead to him getting lectured by Hunk, but maybe just this once.

"Alright, alright I'll tell you, just don't bring Hunk's 'mom' voice into this, I'd rather clean the pods and not have to deal with any chance of that-" Lance instantly shut his mouth, effectively stopping his 'rambling' which was really him just stalling; when he saw Pidge give him a look.

He cleared his throat but grimaced with a wince when it felt as if he was burned, he decided to ignore it, for now, he figured that maybe he was starting to get sick- even if everything started to happen because of the pain he felt in the back of his neck. He shook his head, clearing his thoughts before he spoke up.

"I'm fine, really, just a small headache, hell I might even be getting sick. All I need is a bit of rest and I'm fine, don't worry Pidgeon." He said as he saw her about to open her mouth so he lifted his hand, that was on the headrest the entire time and set it on her shoulder.

Pidge glanced at his hand before she sighed, frowning a bit as she nodded. "Okay, but you let any of us know if you are hurting, even if we're doing anything and I mean it." She huffed out, turning her head up to look at Lance, giving him a stern look.

He chuckled and nodded, sometimes he wondered who acted more motherly at times as Pidge could very well rival Hunk's mother way, but in her own way, she was of course more like a little sister; but she could definitely pull out the 'mom' card at times- more like 'big sister' card now that he thought about it, Hunk took that 'mother' card with pride.

"Got it, Pidgeon." Lance hummed out and let out a small bark of laughter when she reached over and back handed his stomach; even if it hurt to laugh he'd deal with it, for now, he'd put on a mask and pretend, he usually did anyway.

  
Somewhere along the rest of the ride to the Castle Lance closed his eyes and relished in the comfortable silence, on his side mostly; Pidge was speaking to the others through the comms and he couldn't help but wince every time she spoke. It was just so loud but thankfully she didn't speak for very long- don't get him wrong, he loved Pidge and didn't mind if she chewed off his ear about things she loved, if she was happy then he was happy, but right now the silence was his best friend.

His migraine was still the same so the silence was much appreciated, even the voices seemed to be muted; it must have been his migraine that silenced them once and for all. Lance was sure at one point he had fallen asleep upright, either that or the Castle of Lion's was closer than he had remembered; as they had been quite far away to make sure they would be hidden away from the sights of the Galra.

He opened his eyes only to be met with the harsh bright lights of the castle's hangars, he squinted a bit but it didn't make it any better; in fact, it made it worse as the lights got slightly blurred and mixed together, he'd have to play this off for now.

He could just sleep this off and be fine, he hoped he would be at least. He let out a quiet yawn, making his way to the mouth of the Green Lion so they both could be let out. Lance exhaled heavily before he put on a facade, a grin slipping onto his face as the mouth lowered to reveal the rest of the team; his team and his boyfriend standing a few feet away from the snout of the lion.

The harsh lights greeted him once again but this time even worse now that he was outside. "Nice work out there you two." Lance grinned, drinking in Shiro's praise. No matter how terrible you felt, it was always nice to get a compliment from anyone really, but there was something about Shiro's praise that always made him feel better than the rest.

"Thanks, but Pidge did most of the work." He chuckled out as Pidge rolled her eyes, nudging him gently in the stomach. He let out a small laugh, reaching a hand up to rub at the back of his neck, playing it off as if the pain wasn't irritating him to no end; he could see Hunk sharing a look with Pidge in the corner of his eye, a silent conversation that he didn't know if he wanted to get in between, hopefully, it wasn't about him but knowing his luck it most likely was.

He didn't necessarily have the best luck, but he did have the best shot, something he was proud of. Lance ignored it, smiling as his boyfriend, Khajirr came up to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek; he couldn't help but let a genuine smile cross his face, despite the pain, he also hadn't noticed the rather saddened expression he received from Shiro.

Not realizing just how heartbroken his leader was, just by that small sign of affection. His boyfriend, Khajirr, was a Prailt from the planet, Pratreth. They were one race that looked more human than most they encountered; if you didn't count the two extra arms they had. In fact, they were much like the Galra in terms of looks but their skin had mostly warm hues that mostly consisted of reds and yellows, with splashes of black at their shoulders, arms, and legs, their ears like most Galra, were big and furry, resting at the sides of their head; instead of bright yellow eyes, they had hues of purple and green.

They were a predatorial species, which was understandable as their builds, even as children, were very fit and if they didn't have a weapon, it wouldn't really matter as their claws or fangs were just as useful as any melee weapon. However, they were also a very docile race unless provoked, they only hunted when it was needed but they could stomach almost anything edible.

At the time the planet when they had first arrived was under the control of the Galra, most of the Prailt's were locked up as they wouldn't go down without a fight; how their race wasn't wiped out was something that Lance still wondered about. However, they were smaller in numbers compared to the Galra so it proved to be futile and many were captured in their attempt to fight back or escape the Galra.

Unfortunately, some were put down when the Galra couldn't 'tame' them, it was terrible and he still felt so guilty that they couldn't come sooner; even if it wasn't their fault. Thankfully when they arrived no more lives were taken, something that he was grateful for.

Taking back the planet from the Galra's control was always easier said than done, but never impossible; they always managed to find a way, unless they couldn't save the planet itself however that usually wasn't the case. They cleared any Galra from the planet and sure enough, they had another alliance; the Prailt's and their queen, Abajirra, threw a feast for them, during the time of the feast was when he met Khajirr.

He had first thought that Khajirr was female throwing in a casual pickup line, but after quickly learning that he was in fact not female, Lance quickly recovered and continued with the flirt; thankfully Khajirr flirted right on back and they hit it off wonderfully.

The team, of course, couldn't stay there forever, but Lance had begged for them to take Khajirr, saying that the more people they had on the Castle the better it would be if something were to try to attack them from the inside. After a bit of persuading, he was pretty sure that it was because they were tired of him begging; he finally managed to let them take Khajirr aboard.

They were given resources which mostly included different herbs, meats, and other edible items which Hunk got very excited for; saying how he was going to try and make different types of foods with the resources they were given. As time went on and the more of it Lance spent with Khajirr, the deeper he fell for the Prailt, there was just something about him that attracted him; somewhere along the line that attraction sprouted love, soon after that he asked the alien out to his relief and delight Khajirr said yes.

They had been dating for quite some time, time was always hard to tell in space; but he guessed that maybe it had been two to three months that had passed, that's what he was guessing at least, it could've been shorter or longer but Lance was content either way.

"I'm going to go change to see just what information I got from the system, I had to have received at least one important detail." Pidge voiced sharing a look with Hunk one last time before she made her way to her room.

"While you do that I'm going to go train Shiro, you said you wanted to train when they got back safe, right? You still up for it?" Keith spoke up soon after Pidge looking over at Shiro, raising a brow as Shiro perked his head up a bit; seemingly out of it.

"What? Oh, yeah, let's go train." Shiro maundered, earning a look from Lance, he wasn't blind or deaf, even if the lights hurt he could tell something was up with him; but Shiro ignored it, following Keith who was making his way out of the hangars.

The rest of the team started to make their way out of the hangars but Hunk was hanging back, grabbing hold of Lance's forearm waiting for the rest of the team to be out of hearing range before he let Lance go turning to him with a serious look on his face, his 'mom' face as Lance so lovingly called it.

"What's up? You don't look so good." Hunk spoke in a hushed tone, raising a brow at him. He really didn't want to lie, he hated lying to his best friend but he couldn't tell him the truth; not when he had already lied to Pidge. He didn't want her to think that he didn't tell her because she thought he didn't trust her, he didn't want to risk losing his relationship with her.

"I'm fine, just a small headache, I think I might be getting sick so I'll get some rest." He said, letting out a silent chuckle at the disbelieving look that he got from Hunk, "You can even ask Pidge if you don't believe me." He continued, crossing his arms.

"It's not that I don't believe you, I just know that you like to say that you're fine when you're secretly hurting. Just... Let me or anyone else know if you feel any worse, okay?" He couldn't help but smile softly at his friend's genuine worry.

Lance nodded, ignoring the pain that came with it as he unraveled his arms to set a hand on his shoulder. Hunk smiled at him slightly, nodding a bit himself before he made his way out of the hangar; leaving the Cuban all by himself with his hidden pain.

After he made sure that no one would walk in, he let his mask slip, his face distorting into pain as he collapsed to his knees; breathing heavily as he closed his eyes. Everything hurt, it all hurt so much and he just wanted it to stop; Lance wasn't sure when he started to wheeze or how long he had spent alone with the lions in the hangars but he felt a rumble of a purr in the back of his mind.

' _My cub, why don't you just tell the other's how you feel, you know you don't have to suffer alone_.'

Lance couldn't help but let out a pained chuckle at the soothing words, he sometimes forgot that Blue knew what he was thinking, and he was glad that she waited to speak to him when they were alone; he was glad she knew him so well.

"You know why Blue, I just don't want to bother them with something that might end up being nothing; I don't want to seem weak." He spoke up quietly and heard the disapproving purr that sprouted from the back of his mind, fists clenching at the pain that hit him all over his body in waves.

' _At least promise me that if you continue to hurt, you will talk to someone_.'

He smiled a bit at the worried words that came from his lion, letting out a hiss as he felt a wave of nausea hit him like a ton of bricks; he needed to sleep this off, hopefully, he would even be able to. "I promise." He murmured before his eyes fluttered open, letting out a deep breath as he slowly stood from his kneeling position; wincing as every vertebra that aligned in proper place sent a new wave of pain through his body like a pounding headache.

Lance flinched when he heard Allura's booming voice speak up all of a sudden from the silence in the hangars. "Paladins, please make your way to the main room, Pidge has important information that needs to be shared right away."

He groaned, he could never catch a break slowly he started to walk, stumbling a few times but he regained his footing; forcing himself to walk at least somewhat normal when he arrived at the main room. Pausing when he realized something, he hadn't changed out of his paladin suit yet, he cursed under his breath but he already had an excuse just in case they asked, he liked to pride himself in being their strategist after all.

As soon as Lance took a step into the room he could feel his team's eyes glance over to him, some eyes lingering before going back to looking at the hologram that was in the center of the room, except Coran and Khajirr's eyes didn't leave him it seems he was the last one to arrive.

He noticed the two of them send a smile his way as he made his way to his boyfriend's side. "You didn't miss anything important, we were waiting for you to begin but we didn't wait long." The Prailt spoke to him in a quiet and gentle voice, his upper arms crossed while his lower arms were just hanging at his sides.

He smiled at him in thanks before focusing his attention on the hologram, wincing slightly at how bright some points on it were; which didn't seem to go unnoticed by his boyfriend and Pidge, who had glanced over his way. Lance ignored it, for now, he knew he most likely would get questioned by someone at the end of this; he just hoped that maybe they would let it slide.

He drove his thoughts away, focusing more on the hologram and it seemed to be a sort of blue print of the ship they were on with some points lightened up; Lance couldn't help but wonder if this technology was something they picked up from a planet as it seemed different compared to the tech he's seen before, it didn't seem like Altean or Galran tech, maybe the Olkari or a recent planet they visited gave them this; or maybe they had this tech all this time and he either never knew or didn't remember it.

If it was from a different planet he didn't know which one as it was hard to remember all the planets they visited, but he decided he would ask later; maybe after he took a nap. He blinked a few times, not even noticing that Allura had started speaking- well more like finishing up her speech, because as soon as she stopped talking Pidge started to comment on some things.

If only he wasn't so far deep in his thoughts, he just hoped they hadn't said anything very important; but considering that none of them were really reacting he was assuming that nothing of importance was spoken.

Lance tried to drive his thoughts away once again, but as soon as he did he was hit with a wave of nausea and he internally groaned, if it wasn't one thing it was another. Despite the pain, he took notice of the look of surprise and shook taking over his teams face; he forced himself to listen and ignore the pain, even if it was worse than before.

"What do you mean Lotor was on the ship?" Lance paled a bit as he heard Keith speak up, but it didn't make sense if Lotor was on the ship why wasn't there more soldiers, drones, or druids? Shouldn't there have been more Galra there considering the fact that Lotor was on the ship?

This was messing with Lance's head as he felt his headache worsen as his mind tried to come up with complex solutions to every question that occurred. He forced himself to listen again, but this time the pain came back in full force, the pain weakened his legs and his knees gave out from under him; making him collapse with a sharp intake of breath.

He lifted a hand to his head and winced when he heard several people shout his name, the sound was already amplified by how sensitive his body was so it felt as if his team yelled right in his ear. He felt two different hands on his shoulders, focusing his view on the people that surrounded him; seeing worried looks on his teams face.

He took note that Shiro, Coran, Hunk, and Khajirr were the ones closest to him and honestly it wasn't making his pain any better, in all honesty, he felt nauseous but at least the four of them were covering most of the light. He wasn't surprised that the pain and exhaustion got to him again; he knew his body and knew that he wouldn't be able to last very long if he didn't lie down so he could try and rest it off.

Lance cursed internally, realizing that he would have to tell the truth, Hunk and Pidge definitely wouldn't believe him if he said anything along the lines of ''I'm fine'', of course, he wasn't and they could all see that. He just wanted to hide in his room for a little bit until the pain went away, it was most likely nothing for him to worry about, he'd just sleep this off.

He paused and blinked a few times, seeing a hand in front of him, looking up to see that it belonged to Shiro so he gratefully took it as he hoisted him up carefully; the hand on his back steadying him as his body threatened to tip over. Shiro moved carefully, repositioning himself so he had his metal arm under both of Lance's arms, making sure his hold would keep him up.

"What exactly happened on that mission?" Shiro questioned, glancing over at Pidge who raised her hands in defense. "I don't know! Lance said he was ok, that it was a small headache." She explained, shoulders slumping a bit as a look of guilt crossed her face.

Hunk nodded as he glanced over at her before looking back at Lance, "He said the same thing to me, maybe he got hurt and he didn't say anything?" Hunk suggested as he looked his best friend over, frowning when he saw that he seemed paler.

"I-it's not Pidge's fault... I've just been feeling a bit sick lately but I didn't think anything of it. Must be hitting me now." Lance said in a sickly voice and the team returned their attention to him, they seemed to believe him; especially with how he looked in that current moment. He looked close to either passing out or vomiting his breakfast, which only really consisted of food goo, maybe a mix of both.

"Princess, the healing pods can't take care of viruses, correct?" Shiro questioned as he looked over at Allura, she hummed in thought, silent for a few seconds before she nodded. "Yes, the healing pods cannot take care of any virus someone may catch, he will have to rest for the time being. Hopefully, he gets better soon." She proposed, frowning a bit when her eyes landed back on Lance, she felt in a way guilty; as if it was her fault that he was in this position in the first place.

The rest of the team nodded, Shiro repositioned Lance once more before he made his way to the blue paladin's quarters, Khajirr on his tail. The Prailt felt awful, how had he not seen how bad his mate was? He let out an almost inaudible whine, ears going down against his head a bit as a look of distress crossed the aliens face; he hoped that his mate would be better soon, he hated to see him like that.

 

**_Shiro's POV_ **

 

The two soon arrived at Lance's room, which during the last few weeks had evolved into his and Khajirr's room; it was a welcoming sight to the alien and the blue paladin but to the black paladin, it was not. It wasn't the most comfortable thing for Shiro as he felt he was invading in something private, something that shouldn't be seen by him; even if it was a room it still sucked to know that you wouldn't have a chance with your crush and he didn't want to try and end it. If Lance was happy with someone else Shiro wouldn't try and take that away from him, he was just glad he found someone he liked; even if it hurt his heart to know it wasn't him.

Shiro made his way over to the bed, ignoring his feelings in favor of carefully putting Lance in bed, he needed his rest but first, he needed a change of clothes. He felt a hand on his left shoulder and he turned his body slightly, looking behind him to see Khajirr. "I got it from here." The Prailt spoke up in a hushed tone and who was Shiro to try and stop him.

He nodded and moved to the side, his eyes following Khajirr before he turned away from them and walked right out of the room. He heard the door close behind him, and he leaned his back against a wall next to the door, leaning his head back as he let out a shaky sigh; he wanted to help Lance but he couldn't let his emotions get in the way of the right choices, and it was the right choice to have Khajirr help him; especially since he was his boyfriend.

Shiro swallowed harshly, letting out a deep breath before he stood up correctly; right now he could only worry about Lance and hope that nothing was wrong with him.


End file.
